Fire damage restoration for Los Angeles homes

Most home fires we see are contained to one room, usually a kitchen, but the smoke and soot travel through the whole house on air currents and through the HVAC. Rooms that never saw flame still need cleaning.

The water used to put the fire out is its own loss. It soaks drywall and flooring and needs drying before mold starts. For a house that survived a wildfire, read cleaning ash from a standing home.

A kitchen fire usually starts at the cooktop and leaves greasy protein soot on cabinets, ceilings and every surface in the room, plus a strong smell that settles into drywall. We remove burned cabinets and appliances, clean or replace what the heat damaged, degrease the soot film from every surface, and seal the framing and drywall that held the smoke before rebuilding. Protein residue is nearly invisible but smells for months if it is not removed properly. Range hood ducts are cleaned too.

An electrical fire starts inside a wall, panel or appliance, so the damage is often hidden behind drywall. Wiring and framing near the origin are exposed and inspected, and the circuit stays off until an electrician clears it. The soot from burning plastics and wire insulation is oily and dark and spreads further than you expect. We open the affected walls, clean the cavity, treat the odor at the source, and rebuild once the wiring is repaired. Nothing is closed up until the electrician signs off.

Water damage from firefighting is the part people underestimate. Hoses put hundreds of gallons into a structure in minutes, and that water runs into floors, walls and rooms far from the fire. It is also dirty, carrying ash and soot. We extract it the same day, pull wet insulation and flooring, and set drying equipment while soot cleaning goes on in dry rooms. Left for a few days, this water turns a fire job into a mold job too, which nobody wants on the same claim.